Are elite runners nuts for sharing their workouts on Strava?

i chose D2 wrote:

RunHarwell wrote:

Strava is changing so much about running, and almost all of those changes are for the better. Segments give your average Joes a chance to square off with pros 24/7. It gives pros a chance to connect with fans. It creates comradery between strangers and inspires people to train harder.

Strava segments for running are USELESS. Not because of ay kind of flaws with the technology, but due to the nature of running. Nobody who is training seriously is going throw in a hard burst in the middle of run to try to take the record. It fits much better with cycling, where attacking is the norm, and one can hide in the group to conserve energy before and/or after he goes for a KOM, sprint, etc.

What's your point? Any "serious" runner (one that makes money running) won't show up to run any local road race either. Segments aren't meant to be serious, they're fun competition. That's why people run - to challenge themselves and HAVE FUN.

A few years ago I moved to a new town and joined the local running club. I met a few of the runners and one guy said he trains about the same pace I do so I asked how much he ran. He told me he runs 10 miles a day and invited me to run with him. We eventually ran together every day but after two years I could never figure out why he dusted me at every race. The following summer, I went out of town for business and returned late in the evening. On the drive home around 11 pm., I saw my training partner out running and waved. The next day on our run, I asked him why he had to do his 10 miles so late. He said it wasn't late at all. He runs at that time every evening. 10 miles a day, and 10 miles a night.

pop_pop! wrote:

RunHarwell wrote:

THIS. Strava is scary accurate, and the only time you'll see something off is when the GPS signal drops, which is very rare and easily detectable.

No, not really.

Ever wonder why some runs don't fit some pre-defined segments that are on the very same run you just completed?

It's fun to click on things and get a general idea of workouts though.

That's probably the watch rather than the website.

But Strava does overestimate pace. It's always about 15 seconds/mile faster than the Garmin says, and consistently faster than I know I've been going on marked courses. Not sure why.

i chose D2 wrote:

RunHarwell wrote:

Strava is changing so much about running, and almost all of those changes are for the better. Segments give your average Joes a chance to square off with pros 24/7. It gives pros a chance to connect with fans. It creates comradery between strangers and inspires people to train harder.

Strava segments for running are USELESS. Not because of ay kind of flaws with the technology, but due to the nature of running. Nobody who is training seriously is going throw in a hard burst in the middle of run to try to take the record. It fits much better with cycling, where attacking is the norm, and one can hide in the group to conserve energy before and/or after he goes for a KOM, sprint, etc.

Useless is an overstatement. Because most runners don't go hunting for CRs, most leaderboards (at least at the top) have performances that were run during regular distance runs or maybe tempo runs, so you're at least comparing similar efforts usually. Most people around me on the leaderboards are people who are around me in races as well.

Really? "Afraid?" Maybe I just think its creepy that people want to follow me on Strava.

A couple things.

Why would you be concerned with the data accuracy of a workout? You can simply click the lap button and see where they clicked their watch. If they aren't clicking their own splits, you can still get a pretty good idea. It sounds like most people on this thread don't know how to use a computer.

Why would you care what other people see at all? Knowing where a guy or two is in terms of fitness isn't going to effect my outcome, I need to trust my own training and strategy more than my interpretation of someone else's. Even if I review the guy to beats training log and it looks like he's not sharp, that doesn't mean I can't show up on race day. You never really know what all is happening and certain things could be omitted/added to the public log anyway.

You might race over/under your workouts. I know a lot of guys who are terrible at workouts, and others who run them better than they do on race day. A workout doesn't show that much, and there is no magic formula.

And most importantly, why not market your brand? Do you really think Dean Karnazes would have a job without social media? 30 years ago he would have had to chose another career. There are a lot of very talented runners that don't want to blog or run youtube channels a la Sage, who keep in mind had almost no buzz when he was a Hanson's guy. Why not drop your logs to let your legs do the talking? I'm surprised there wasn't more hype when Desi posted a few killer workouts on Garmin, but I guess that shows how lame connect is.

800 dude wrote:

pop_pop! wrote:

No, not really.

Ever wonder why some runs don't fit some pre-defined segments that are on the very same run you just completed?

It's fun to click on things and get a general idea of workouts though.

That's probably the watch rather than the website.

But Strava does overestimate pace. It's always about 15 seconds/mile faster than the Garmin says, and consistently faster than I know I've been going on marked courses. Not sure why.

seems like a unique problem. i've never had strava show a different pace than my watch by more than a couple seconds per mile.

however, segment paces on the leaderboard could be off by some constant factor IF the person who made the segment did so on a run with a poor gps device or signal. for example, if my watch is being funky on a forested trail and says that a 1.23 mile loop i do is 1.19 miles, then if i create a segment based on that inaccurate gps file, the leaderboard will always show paces that are slower than reality, but ti will be the same for everybody by a factor of (pace x (1.23/1.19)).

and to the guy that says all the strava data is inaccurate, you must have never used it yourself. the margin of error is minimal, and when there are gps problesm they are usually obvious if you look at the pace vs time graph or the map.

This is the key here. Strava simply interprets the GPS data provided to it by your watch. It does make some corrections, for example if you stop your watch during a run and then start it again, it detects that and corrects the data. I've wired my garmin connect account to Strava and the data I see in both places is no different. Strava just gives me a nicer view and is much more reliable. Garmin connect's web site and iPhone app are a POS if you ask me.

And to the contrary of previous posts - I actually do find Strava segments motivating. I usually run my tempos over a 2mi loop of which I've created a segment for and I find it motivating to see how my times stack up with my previous performances. Or if I decide to do a short pickup in the middle of an easy run, I'll usually do that over a segment so I can compare my previous times.

I also find following elites useful. To see Oly Trials qualifiers like Nick Arciniaga and Sage Canaday doing easy mileage at 7-7:30 was an eye opener to me. I'm a 2:35 marathoner and would do most of my "easy" mileage at sub-7 pace. But then here 's a 2:11 guy and a 2:17 guy running slower than I do on their easy days. Made me re-think my approach to "easy" days, that's for sure.

bigtool05 wrote:

why would it matter?

Because my pre-race "I'm in unbelievable shape" comments would be invalidated the moment I utter them.

stravaisking wrote:

Reading comp wrote:

They said they didn't WANT to do it not they AREN'T CAPABLE of doing it.

Didn't want to do it = afraid to share actual mileage. Plain and simple.

No. Not really. In fact, not at all.

Strava User,

But the opposite is true. I see some guys doing workouts and pretty much conclude there is no way in hell I could run that, and I'm a 3:50/14:20 guy. It's a great eye opener to the talent out there and the work they put in.

Of course there are factors not shown in a training log. Talent level, fatigue level, various forms of "nutrition".

fadsfasfadsf wrote:

Renato Canova posts the ENTIRE training schedules of some of his best athletes. World champions, world record holders, Olympic medalists. And you think Joe America 13:30 guy should be standoffish about his training?

RunHarwell wrote:

Strava is changing so much about running, and almost all of those changes are for the better. Segments give your average Joes a chance to square off with pros 24/7. It gives pros a chance to connect with fans. It creates comradery between strangers and inspires people to train harder.

Anyone who isn't for more transparency in running is crazy.

+1

I follow some local runners where I am (theoretically my age-group competition), as well as some elites from all over. It's pretty motivating to get an alert that a local master you race with just dropped a 15-miler on Wednesday morning, or that an elite did some ungodly marathon-pace workout.

As for segments, it's just fun, bros, don't overthink it! I can't imagine stopping, stretching and doing a time-trial type effort to grab a segment CR, but surging here and there on an otherwise normal run is probably good for anyone. Knocking out a PR or CR for a segment within a real workout is fun, too.

Am I going to disrupt my entire week's training to push the CR for "University Bridge Eastbound" into the stratosphere? No. Is it fun to see the top 10 times climbing that mother this summer? Sure.

The only thing that has bugged me about Strava is people obviously cycling segments and setting CRs in 2:xx mile pace, which is pretty obnoxious if it's purposeful or annoying if they just selected "run" rather than "ride." The other day my CR from the trail I use for mile repeats was obliterated by someone who apparently covered it in 2:25, but then it went back to be so maybe he was able to delete the activity somehow?

There is also a local dude who somehow has "calculated PRs" of 1:40, 3:43, 12:37 etc from 400 to 10k, which is pretty funny. I need to ask him how he did that sometime.

i chose D2 wrote:

Strava segments for running are USELESS. Not because of ay kind of flaws with the technology, but due to the nature of running. Nobody who is training seriously is going throw in a hard burst in the middle of run to try to take the record. It fits much better with cycling, where attacking is the norm, and one can hide in the group to conserve energy before and/or after he goes for a KOM, sprint, etc.

Um....ever heard of FART LEK?

Not on Strava wrote:

Does it seem odd that some elite runners openly share their workouts on Strava for all the competition to see? Whatever happened to playing your cards close to your vest? Or, of being low key?

Meaningless. If they are better than you, they will usually beat you. If they are not, they can train all they want and will not. Agree with the low key observation, which is basically non-existent with social media and makes you question why people are working out in the 1st place.

hmm, for me it's kind of the opposite.

some watches are wrong. my watch AND strava data is always dead-on with race results while friends, who finished within a few seconds of me, have watches that show their pace was 10 seconds a mile faster. that's a lot over 13.1 miles, but it's not a strava issue me boy

800 dude wrote:

[quote]pop_pop! wrote:

That's probably the watch rather than the website.

But Strava does overestimate pace. It's always about 15 seconds/mile faster than the Garmin says, and consistently faster than I know I've been going on marked courses. Not sure why.

People pretty much have it covered. Strava is just a solid place to log runs and gives a nice visual for displaying them. If you like the social media aspect, you can indulge in that better with Strava than anything else. It's just an all around solid app.

Sure, that is modestly annoying. If for some reason that segment is very important to you, then you can always flag people using a bike or forgetting to turn GPS off in car.

As for those calculated PRs...that's amusing that he threw up all the WRs. Most likely just did it using a bike.

as someone else already responded... you can flag activities if they were obviously on a bike or in a car. default settings sometimes enter them wrong, i don't think it's normally malicious. also, the calculated PRs thing, it will throw those in there based off messed up GPS data.